DVD and Blu-ray Disc bargains! — Page 17

Best--I'm gonna side with DVDBeaver and Agnes Varda here. The Miramax disc of Rochefort lookes way too saturated for me--Demy talks in the documentary about how it's all meant to be pastels and slightly faded, "like a memory." I much prefer the look of the BluRay. I am biased though--I remember on a French Demy email forum all the discussion about how Miramax messed up the colours on the Rochefort disc.

Cherbourg looks very good to me, as does Donkey Skin--the only ones I can compare to DVDs, but I can't speak with as much authority about the colour with those ones (they were also supervised by Varda--but your mileage could vary with that qualification.)

Every shot in Rochefort on the Criterion BD looks like a scene from Soylent Green.

It's not "pastels," it looks more like Stage 4 smog. Very ugly, and I will gladly watch the oversaturated DVD.

I don't like how these color-timers go crazy and think they can "fix" something that wasn't broken by making it worse.

I won't buy The King and I because it's blue.

I won't buy LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring (extended) because it's green.

And Rochefort is yellow.

Stop! Now.

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You don't notice the yellow tinge? How could you not?

Updated On: 3/12/15 at 07:06 AM

For those of you who love your "Friends," and you know who you are, the complete series is available on Blu-ray today (Gold Box Amazon deal) for $79.99. That's 71% of the list price.

LINK

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The worst part about the Rochefort color-timing is that there are no true "whites" on the screen (no, that's not a racial comment!).

Rochefort's costumes and buildings have a lot of white in them, and they all look like nicotine-stained ugly beige-yellow teeth, rather than white.

That's how I know the color is off. There is no white anywhere (except the subtitles).

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For those of you into the Disney animation catalog, there are some nice/classic titles available for Black-Fridayesque prices this week on Amazon.

Alice in Wonderland BD/DVD combo
The Rescuers (both films) BD/DVD combo
Roger Rabbit BD/DVD combo
Oliver & Co. BD/DVD combo

All are $9.96!

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I'm not a fan of the PAL coloring the way Carlos is. I like the US/Mirimax coloring best, even if it's over-saturated. At least it's not tinted.

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Demy describes the whites as "cream." *shrug* I admit, anyway, I really dislike the blue PAL colouring. Of course I'm not foolish enought o say that because Demy's wife and son spent so much time with the remaster they still aren't necessarily right--but they were meticulous about it. Also remember that Demy used cyan-yellow-red strip film on purpose.

Thanks for the heads up on the Disney discs!

Mine came today! Perfect for a cold and rainy weekend!

Thanks! My only dilemma is trying to decide which one to start with!

The Criterion sales are a bit of a ruse. Their blurays are often $ 20-22 bucks at Amazon everyday.

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The Criterion sale is handy if you spend fifty bucks or more, then you get the free shipping. Over time I've managed to pick up most of what I want from their catalogue, so I've got my eyes on their new releases as a rule. This time I picked up their marvelous (based on the first half hour or so) restoration of Roeg's DON'T LOOK NOW, but I only did it because I had a ten dollar gift certificate from the ERASERHEAD mess they had. I tend to wait for the Barnes and Noble sales, where shipping isn't an issue, except for the OMG GOTTA HAVE IT NOW releases, like the recent FELLINI SATYRICON.

DON'T LOOK NOW seems to me to be a real marvel of this kind of restoration/presentation. It's crystal clear with gorgeous color, and it manages to present the film grain that was such an integral part of filmmaking in the 1970s -- they've resisted the temptation to make it all squeaky clean. I'm looking forward to sitting down and really giving this film the attention it deserves. Just a quick cursory check of the film's first sections had me gasping.

You never know what's going to happen with these restorations, though. The current digital version of Kubrick's THE SHINING has a very strange bit of new color-timing, which makes a certain tennis ball that features prominently in one memorable scene, pink where it used to be yellow. And you can see that the stars on the boy's sweater in that same scene are also pink where they used to be yellow. You can see the difference in the assorted captures on the dvdbeaver page for the film. I wonder why this happened -- Kubrick's folks are usually so careful about stuff like this.

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It does look amazing! I watched Watership Down this week and it looked marvelous. I am so obsessed with Criterion. They truly do the most amazing job on all the films they release.